There is “huge growth potential” in exports across South Africa’s borders into the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with GSF Logistics having grown its cross-border load book by almost 25% year-on-year over the past five years, according to CEO, Dhiren Krishna.
“Developing export logistics services allows a growing region like southern Africa – which is one of the fastest growing regions on the continent – to be competitive on the global trade stage.” He said he was “encouraged” by government’s recent pledge to spend almost R10 billion over the next few years on transport infrastructure, with the logistics sector set to receive about 40% of this.
“Efficient logistics infrastructure stimulates international investment,” Krishna said. He believes stakeholders in cross-border trade are increasingly demanding far more efficiency from their logistics service providers. “As much as the freight rate is critical in securing business, so is the transporter’s ability to navigate the challenges of export cargo handling,” said Krishna.
He added that the company’s expansion over the past eight to ten years was paying dividends now.
“We planned well ahead and invested pre-emptively, not just in reaction to market demand.” He said that as part of streamlining its SADC operations, GSF was developing larger operations in Zambia. “We are also looking at accessing Department of Trade and Industry (dti) programmes to help spur our growth,” he said.
The Level 1 broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BEE) emerging company is located close to the Port of Durban and has its own 60 000-litre fuel depot in the yard. “We have recently acquired a Kalmar container handler at a turn-key value of R7 million, capable of stacking 45-ton containers five high at our 12000sqm depot in Durban,” Krishna added.
